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Video: How Russian director Kantemir Balagov became an Oscar nominee at the age of 28
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
This director is still quite young, he is only 28 years old, and he already has several very prestigious international awards. The childhood passion for cinema grew into a profession, and at the age of 18 he was filming his first small videos. Films by Kantemir Balagov have repeatedly taken part in international competitions, and in 2019 his new film Dylda was nominated for the Oscar in the Best Foreign Language Film nomination.
From mainstream to own cinema
Kantemir Balagov was born and raised in Nalchik. His father is a businessman, and his mother has been working as a head teacher for many years and teaches chemistry and biology at school. Kantemir himself, as a child, became interested in films, which today are called mainstream, that is, the most popular form of mass cinema.
He dreamed of the time when he would be able to create his own pictures, so at the age of 18 he began to shoot small videos, a little later he swung into an Internet series, which he filmed with friends, releasing 10-minute episodes connected by a single plot.
At the same time, the young man understood that he could reach a completely different level, therefore, on the advice of his friends, he wrote a letter to Alexander Sokurov, who at that time was running a director's workshop at Kabardino-Balkarian University. The result was the enrollment of Cantemir immediately to the third year.
It was interesting to study with the director. Alexander Nikolaevich forbade his students to look at his own works, so as not to break their handwriting and make the works of his graduates look alike. But Sokurov recommended watching films of different masters, and also constantly reading good works. He advised Balagov to read more, because a childhood fascination with American films could affect his subsequent vision of his own. Sokurov recommended that his student watch the classics of world cinema.
The student suddenly discovered a new wave of French cinema, looked differently at Soviet films of the "thaw" times, especially impressed by the work of Marlen Khutsiev "I am twenty years old" and "Wings" by Larisa Shepitko. Every six months, students released their short films, and today Kantemir Balagov speaks about them with warmth, but notes that his first works were not at all perfect.
First full meter
Kantemir Balagov released his debut full-length film "Closeness" in 2017. The film is based on real events, and to launch it into production required financial support, which the young director found in the fund of his teacher Alexander Sokurov "An example of intonation".
The action takes place in Nalchik in 1998, and the director used documentary footage filmed during the Chechen war to show the characters of the heroes. The format of the picture allowed Kantemir Balagov to focus events around the main character and create a feeling of crampedness in the frame, which fully corresponded to the title of the picture.
The screening of "Closeness" in the "Unusual Regard" program at the Cannes Film Festival brought the creator the first international award: the FIPRESCI Prize. Despite the high praise of critics, Balagov himself noted that the majority of viewers would not like the film, and even in his homeland it would not be successful.
But the picture was able to win the prize "For the best debut" at the 28th Kinotavr festival and take the Grand Prix of the XI film festival "Mirror".
The first step to the Oscar
In the wake of the success of Tightness, Kantemir Balagov set about creating his new film, and in June 2019 his new film Dylda was released in Russia. This time, the director showed the story of two front-line friends who returned from the front to Leningrad in 1945. They had to restore the ruins, which were not only in the city exhausted by the blockade and war, but also in their own souls.
The screening at the Cannes Film Festival brought the director two awards at once: the FIPRESCI prize and the prize for best director. In addition, Dylda was awarded the Grand Prix of the Zerkalo Film Festival, the Geneva and Sakhalin International Film Festivals, and several other significant awards.
In addition, the film by 28-year-old Kantemir Balagov was nominated for an Oscar in the Best Foreign Language Film nomination. True, Dylda was not included in the list of five nominees, but at the end of January 2020, the picture of the young Russian director was released in North America, where it will run for three months.
Kantemir Balagov is not going to stop there, he has a lot of plans and creative ideas. And the young director also dreams of filming some of the world's stars in the Caucasus. At the same time, it is important for him that the participation of a celebrity is justified, and not just an actor playing a native resident.
He tries to reduce his inner pathos and prevent him from affecting his work. He plans to shoot the next picture about the modern Caucasus, showing the character of a real man. Perhaps, soon the audience will hear the news that the film of the Russian director won the Oscar.
During the entire existence of the Oscar, Russian films have been nominated for its receipt more than once, however only 6 Russian paintings were awarded a gold statuette. Moreover, each of the "Oscar-winning" films can be called a real masterpiece of cinema.
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